TikTokTrends Week: 7
Week of August 31st.
Hi!
Welcome to week 7 of TikTokTrends!
Great to have you here. This week we will be talking about #TheAtlantic, #SB-145 and #StatesForTrump.
I hope you enjoy this week’s edition, and if you do, please share this with your friends!
Let’s jump in!
#TheAtlantic
The Atlantic published an article written by Jefferey Goldberg on September 3rd with the title reading “Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’”
The article has gotten a lot of backlash. Trump swears that he never said that, calling The Atlantic a “Terrible Magazine.” Many news outlets were quick to write about the article, explaining the facts.
I won’t be going into too much detail about the article. I will be talking about how it was covered on TikTok.
Link for the video on the left and on the right.
The Context
Videos on this issue were focused in two groups. The first group is the democrats. I have linked one of the more popular videos from the democrats above on the left. The other group is from the conservatives linked to the right.
There is an ongoing conversation between the democrats and republicans about the article. Both sides are using each other’s videos to disprove each other, adding evidence to each video, using the Duet function on the app.
Trump supporters are saying that the article is a cover-up for the Nancy Pelosi ‘scandal’, where Pelosi was videotaped inside a hair salon without a mask. They also explain things Trump has done for the military, like increasing the military funding and raising their pay to express their disbelief/distrust in the article.
Liberal content creators are focusing on how Fox News and other outlets have confirmed the story. Adding previous remarks Trump has made about veterans like John McCain. They are also pointing out that Trump used a bone spur diagnosis to avoid Vietnam as evidence to Trump not caring for the military.
It is interesting to see how separate parties' content creators look at the same issue and see different things. Also, the way the information is shared is key here. I found the republican side doing a much better job in explaining their views. They go directly into the parts they have an issue with and explain it with evidence like citing John Bolton and others that have come out to say they have not heard the president say those words. Conservative content creators also use captions to their advantage. This small text adds an extra layer of confidence to the viewer.
Ultimately, it is hard, maybe impossible to verify this story unless we accept The Atlantic’s version of it. Both party supporters are quick to take sides on such issues, aiming to fire up their support, and dismantle the opposite side.
#SB-145
SB-145 is a bill passed in the California State Senate on August 31, 2020. It has raised controversy because it has been shared as a bill that “legalizes pedophilia”. Reuters, USA Today and many other news outlets have published fact-checks and informative articles on the issue. Here is the entire bill if anyone is interested in reading it for themselves.
Although not trending on TikTok, a lot of smaller accounts have made videos on this issue, and got popular over the last couple of days. The hashtag has gained 430,000 views in two days. Many creators have taken down their videos, as I have been writing this newsletter.
The Context
The video above starts with a very sarcastic congratulations to California, for being “the disgrace of the country”. Then continues to say, “Now it is okay for an 18-year-old to have sex with an 8-year-old?” adding, “Yes, that is what the bill says, honey.” And “California granted permission for pedophiles to have sex with anybody in a 10-year age range, no matter how old.”
This is obviously not true; I won’t go too deep into fact-checking this since there are many sources that have written about it extensively.
There are two points I want to make. The first is the way misinformation is being spread on TikTok, which revolves around the dominance and the way the facts are put forth by the creator. I have also covered this in prior weeks. The ‘facts’ that the creator explains are very direct and very convincing, especially for people who know little about the issue. That is the main audience, people who won’t read fact-checked articles, who are leaning against the democrats and would be inclined to believe that democrats would do such a horrible thing.
The second one is a sentence I caught in the video. She says, “Everybody is marching around to save the children…” It’s not very important for this video, but it got me thinking about the issue we have lately been seeing about children. Which is tied to QAnon.
QAnon
The conspiracy theory group known as QAnon, has been active since 2017, when it grew in popularity on the 4Chan forum. Members of the conspiracy theory are far-right ideologically, and they are known for their appreciation of Trump.
Two months ago, the Wayfair conspiracy theory was widely tied to the QAnon movement. People were posting unbelievable theories about children being transported and sex trafficked, using the Wayfair website as a front. The theory was mainly based on outrages prices given to ordinary items, and the names of these items being affiliated with kidnapped children. After two months, and many fact-checks and announcements later, the Wayfair scandal died down. But the “Save the Children” slogan stuck, especially amongst the conservatives.
The slogan was hijacked from a non-profit organization based in the UK, focusing around saving children. New York Times reports the QAnon movement used this legitimate fund-raising campaign to involve more people, especially during the Wayfair scandal, to then spin off-topic in the conspiracy world that is QAnon. The NYT also explains, “The argument QAnon makes is, ‘If you’re against us talking about this, you’re in favor of child trafficking.’”
How does this relate to TikTok?
Well, I have noticed a lot of conservative content creators are using the same “save the children.” profile picture. Here are a couple of content creators that have this logo:
It's interesting. It is a very subtle nod to the QAnon movement. Without triggering any bells and whistles. TikTok, like other social networks, has banned the use of the QAnon affiliated hashtags to limit the spread of conspiracy theories.
I wasn’t able to find any news articles on this trend specifically. I am not sure how deeply these creators are involved in the conspiracy. As mentioned above, this is what QAnon is doing. Everyone would agree that child sex trafficking is a real and horrible issue, but is that why these creators are using this profile picture? Are we in the wrong here for not standing up for ‘save the children’?
Next week I aim to understand more about this trend we are seeing in the profile pictures of conservative creators!
Do you have any information about this? I would love to hear from you! Please reply to this email so we could connect!
#StatesForTrump
States for Trump was started by Bryson Gray, a Trump Supporter that wanted to get other supporters from various states participating in the trend. Gray wanted creators to post their states supporting Trump. Many creators used the duet feature that allows the creator to react to the video playing. As TikTok is most notably used for dancing videos, this feature allows content creators to recreate the dance moves, and sometimes interact with the original creator.
The Context
The original video is Gray talks to the camera, asking Trump supporters to comment on their states, to understand which state has the most Trump voters. Trump voters used the Duet feature and created a virtual parade. The video above shows this parade. If you look closely, there is a large line of people, getting smaller and smaller, all have posted their states in the video.
The video I chose was one of the most popular ones, with a woman wearing a Trump hat and captioned: New Jersey. There are around 1800 videos posted as a response to Gray, mostly showcasing their states, with the American flag, a Maga hat or Trump2020 signs.
This was not the first time a virtual parade was done on TikTok. This feature is often used. It is called the duet chain and is used mainly to show support to a specific trend, or it can also be a way to interact with a large group of people, creating a virtual Mexican wave effect.
This duet chain that took off this week, promoted influencers showing their natural bellies to celebrate body positivity, collectively gained 65 million views in a matter of days.
Noteworthy TikTok’s of the week:
A shark bit a man on a beach in Florida. The video is not very graphic, but it is shocking. There is a small shark stuck on the man’s forearm, while a group of rescue workers tries to get the shark to let go. The video was watched 50 million times, mostly due to the caption left by the creator that reads: “He was worried about the medical bills.” The caption is referring to the person bitten by a shark, and saying that the man does not want to go to a hospital to get treated due to the high medical bills he would have to pay. This is a six-part series, accumulating over 70 million views.
A toddler got his head stuck in his toilet seat! His father is seen trying to get the kid out with a saw. Gaining 30 million views in 2 days, this was shared everywhere. In the end, little Reuben is free!
The TikTok deal has stalled! Currently the bidding war is still ongoing with Microsoft, Oracle and Walmart. They are trying to get a deal that could be worth around $30 billion. The Trump administration has been reported to be looking into banning a number of other apps in addition to TikTok.
That’s all for this week, folks. Don’t forget to subscribe, share, and let me know if you think there’s an interesting TikTok trend I should be talking about! – Here is my Twitter!
See you next week!